Christie Whelan Browne settles sex discrimination case with theatre company outside of court
Actor Christie Whelan Browne says she has settled her sex discrimination case with Oldfield Entertainment outside of court.
Last year, Browne brought a lawsuit against the theatre company alleging victimisation after she complained of alleged harassment by Craig McLachlan, her castmate in a 2014 production of the Rocky Horror Show.
The federal court lawsuit has been filed against the theatrical company and did not seek relief from McLachlan.
In a statement shared to Instagram today, Browne said she was “extremely happy with the outcome” and that she was able to “avoid the pain of another trial.”
The past 18 months has taken a huge toll on me. But there will come a day, in the future, when I have healed, where I will be able to look back and be proud that I stood up for myself.
There is nothing more to say on the subject. It’s done. And I’m free.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
NTEU says Shorten’s first act as vice-chancellor should be review of institution’s governance
The National Tertiary Education Union says Bill Shorten’s first act as the new vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra should be to undertake a review of the institution’s governance.
The ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, said Shorten needed to “know what he is walking into”, pointing to the previous vice-chancellor’s 71% pay increase prior to his resignation in January. Paddy Nixon’s package was $1.8m in 2023 compared with just over $1m in 2022.
UC’s previous vice-chancellor received an unexplained $700,000 pay increase at a time when the university is financially starving … governance reform is necessary and overdue.
We look forward to a productive and collaborative relationship with the new vice-chancellor, built on a basis of respect for staff and our shared union values, and based on our shared commitment to the future success of the University of Canberra.
Asked to explain the increase, the university’s chancellor, Lisa Paul, told the Canberra Times the vice-chancellor’s salary and entitlements were “confidentially negotiated” with the University Council and would not comment further.
Caitlin Cassidy
Western Sydney University urging government to address $50k arts degrees
The vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University says student debt is a “broken system” in a new call for the federal government to reduce the cost of skyrocketing arts degrees.
Data released by the Department of Education in July confirmed the student contribution for a range of degrees including society and culture, communications, law and economics would jump to $16,992 annually from 2025, five years on from the widely condemned jobs ready graduates (JRG) scheme.
Prof George Williams AO said the debt worked against the government’s stated aim of encouraging more diverse students into university.
Two-thirds of students at Western Sydney University are the first in their family to attend university, while it also has the highest number of low SES students of any university.
Western Sydney University urges the government to urgently act to fix a broken system, which has now pushed the cost of a three-year arts degree above $50,000. How does this imbalance, impacting equity groups, serve the minister’s commitment to make the system ‘fairer’?
Greens claim first ever NT seat
Kat McNamara has unseated the former NT chief minister Natasha Fyles in the electorate of Nightcliff, becoming the first Greens MP elected in territory history.
McNamara is leading Fyles by only 33 votes on a re-count but is expected to claim the seat, in Darwin’s suburbs.
Fyles, who resigned as chief minister last December, held the seat on a margin of more than 20%.
Amy Remeikis
Shorten’s departure fuels electoral excitement
Bill Shorten’s election announcement has kickstarted the usual round of well-wishes from political friends and foes (everyone drops the hostilities for the farewells).
Peter Dutton has wished Shorten well and Labor colleagues such as Victorian premier Jacinta Allan have paid tribute to the former Labor leader.
Shorten, of course, is not leaving until February, and will remain in cabinet right until the end.
But that doesn’t mean there are not eyes which have immediately turned to what the long time Maribyrnong MP’s departure will mean, electorally.
The Greens are feeling invigorated – the party doesn’t have a candidate for Shorten’s electorate as yet, but are now eyeing it as a seat where they could cause some trouble for Labor.
But Labor now has to defend Maribyrnong and Calwell in the north. There is also a strong campaign against Peter Khalil in Wills, which will stretch Labor resources even further.
With the Victorian Labor government also starting to fall in popularity, Victoria is not looking so safe for Labor at the moment. Keep an eye on all of those moving parts.
Adeshola Ore
Greens preselect Ratnam replacement
The Victorian Greens have preselected a Pacific health campaigner for the state seat vacated by the former party leader Samantha Ratnam.
In a statement, the party says members have preselected Anasina Gray-Barberio for the northern metropolitan upper house seat – the party’s safest in the state. Ratnam, who announced earlier this year she would resign from state parliament, is contesting the federal seat of Wills at the next election.
Gray-Barberio, who will take over the seat in October, says she wants to fight for secure and affordable housing and climate issues:
As a Pasefika woman, I have a deep understanding of the threats posed by climate change, coming from a community that is on the frontline of the climate crisis.
We’re in a critical decade for the climate, and people with lived experience and unique perspectives like mine deserve a seat at the table.
Adeshola Ore
Jacinta Allan reacts to Bill Shorten retirement news
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has been asked about Bill Shorten’s retirement from federal politics.
Speaking to reporters, Allan thanked Shorten for representing his constituents in the Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong:
I’ve also known Bill personally for a really long time. We haven’t always seen eye to eye. We’ve had disagreements as federal and state politicians sometimes do but Bill has always come to his representative roles, as a union leader, as a local member of parliament and as a minister with a determination to make change. He’s always poured his heart and soul into that task.
Victorian premier says Setka’s appearance at taxpayer-funded project referred to police
Adeshola Ore
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, says former union boss John Setka’s appearances at two taxpayer-funded projects has been referred to Victoria police.
The Age reported that Setka, the former Victorian construction secretary, delivered a speech yesterday to workers at the $1.5bn Footscray hospital project.
The speech, which attacked the Albanese government, comes after Setka resigned from the union in July before the Age published allegations of criminal links within the union. Separately, Allan has confirmed Setka spoke to workers at a Metro Tunnel project site on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, Allan says the director general of Victoria’s Big Build has referred Setka’s appearances to Victoria police for further investigation:
I want to be clear at the outset that there is no place on Victorian Big Build work sites for John Setka.
Dutton continues nuclear push despite latest report showing it ‘cannot make timely contribution’ to net zero
Peter Dutton was also speaking about energy policy. This comes after the Climate Change Authority released its report today, identifying six things Australia must do to get the country largely off fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.
Adam Morton had all the details on this earlier in the blog, here.
Despite evidence that nuclear “cannot make a timely contribution” to replacing retiring coal-fired power stations or helping achieve net zero by 2050 (see earlier comments from Matt Kean), Dutton is continuing his nuclear push. He told reporters:
We’ve looked at the top 20 economies in the world and, in 19 of those, they are either adopting or have adopted nuclear power and Australia is the only country that has not.
He also claimed that the “overwhelming … majority of Australians” now support nuclear energy, and “they do it because they know that when the prime minister says that the wind is free and the sun is free, that is rubbish.”
Data from the Smart Energy Council, however, shows that the Coalition’s nuclear plan could cost taxpayers as much as $600bn while supplying just 3.7% of Australia’s energy mix by 2050.
Dutton claims that a vote for a teal independent is a vote for Labor
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with reporters from Sydney. He has been taking aim at teal independents, and argued:
What we know about the teal’s is that the majority of them are actually Green teals. They made themselves out to be disaffected liberal voters that they are not…
We know the green teal’s vote consistently with the Greens are with the Labor Party in the Parliament, and if you are voting for a green teal know that you are voting for Anthony Albanese.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland public transport patronage soars after fares slashed
Public transport patronage has soared by up to 40.6% in Queensland, after the state government slashed fares to just 50 cents.
According to an update by the transport department, all four transport modes have seen spikes compared with last year, and the number of trips overall have finally surpassed the pre-Covid peak.
According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads:
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Bus ridership is up 12.1%
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Rail ridership is up 16%
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Light rail ridership is up 18.6%
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Ferry ridership is up 40.6%
The number of trips overall is 2.4% higher than the pre-Covid average, and is 14.5% higher than a comparative period last year. About 30% to 40% more people are using public transport on weekends, compared with pre-Covid.
The state government slashed fares from among the country’s most expensive to by far the cheapest on 5 August, as part of a six-month trial.
Queensland goes to the polls on October 26.
University of Canberra chancellor welcomes Bill Shorten after VC announcement
The chancellor of the University of Canberra, Lisa Paul, has issued a message after news the former Labor leader Bill Shorten would become vice-chancellor from February next year.
She said Shorten was unanimously chosen after an “exhaustive search and a rigorous merit-based selection process overseen by a selection committee of seven”.
In February, Shorten will leave the government and politics to take up the positions of vice-chancellor and president. Paul said:
Bill has made an enormous impact on Australia over his years in office. His advocacy for people with disability and for all who need support aligns perfectly with our university that has a firm commitment to reducing inequalities.
Bill is passionate about the transformative power of education in changing lives – this is a value that is also close to my heart. Like many universities across Australia, UC is going through a significant time of change and many opportunities and challenges lie ahead of us.
Bill’s wealth of experience will set us apart and situate UC to tackle the future from the strongest possible position.
Interim vice-chancellor Prof Lucy Johnston will continue in the role until Shorten starts next year, Paul said.
AEC abolishes Higgins electorate in Victoria and creates Bullwinkel in WA
The Australian Electoral Commission has officially abolished the Higgins electorate in Victoria and created the Bullwinkel electorate in Western Australia.
The new WA electorate is named after Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel, sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Island massacre.
In a statement, the AEC said there would be “a very small increase in the number of electors who will change their electoral division” in Victoria. The AEC wrote on X:
As the names [and] boundaries announced today are not considered to be significantly different from the initial proposal there will be no further public input.
The new [Victorian] names and boundaries will be formally determined on 17 October 2024 with overview maps also becoming available.
Competition watchdog give Optus and Vodafone network sharing nod
Josh Taylor
Optus and Vodafone have cleared a major hurdle in expanding their mobile network coverage through a network sharing arrangement, after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission did not oppose the deal.
The $1.6bn deal announced in April between Optus and Vodafone parent company TPG will see Optus using TPG spectrum in regional areas while TPG will be allowed to use Optus mobile network equipment in regional areas leading to a boost of mobile coverage for both companies in regional Australia.
The ACCC said the agreement was unlikely to lessen competition in the mobile sector, and would allow better choice for consumers in regional locations.
Vodafone said the move will allow it to double its mobile coverage – from around 400,000 square kilometres to around 1,000,000 square kilometres – across Australia from 2025.
Kieren Cooney, Vodafone’s consumer executive director said:
This is a huge win for customers and regional Australia, with our award-winning mobile services soon to be available in thousands of holiday destinations and regional communities across the country.
Optus interim CEO Michael Venter said it would allow Optus to “press the fast forward button” on its 5G rollout in regional communities.
The deal came after the competition tribunal knocked back a proposed network sharing arrangement between Vodafone and the largest provider, Telstra, last year.
Bill Shorten says robodebt ‘should never have happened’
Taking his final question, Bill Shorten was asked about robodebt and whether he can reflect on the issue of accountability, what he says to victims and who will champion this inside government in future?
Shorten said that “every Labor member is a champion for people who experience disadvantage”. On robodebt, he said it “should never have happened” and continued:
The best thing I can say to victims is we invented the DeLorean and we can go back in time and make sure the law was never broken, but the DeLorean hasn’t been invented. What we can do is seek compensation for that, which we did in the class action, and we can hold the previous government to account, which we have.
There is Coalition ministers who forever in their Wikipedia entry will have ‘they were robodebt ministers’. Most importantly, the public service and ministers need to learn that we have to understand the implications of policies before we do it.
We will never again I hope see a chapter in Australia’s modern history we assume that people on welfare are cheats or second class. Access to our social service system is a human right backed by our commitment to United Nations conventions.
I’m confident with the modern Services Australia we are reducing the waiting times on the phone, we’re getting the payments out. There is a definite change in culture … but we have more improvements to make. But if we never forget robodebt, that is our best chance never to forget it.
A reporter asked for clarification on the date of the next election, and whether Bill Shorten had inadvertently “belled the cat” on a February election?
Anthony Albanese said he hadn’t, and this is just when the academic year starts. He said he wasn’t going to tell Shorten to wait to begin the role “sometime between May or whenever it is” next year.
Bill Shorten says his platform was ‘ambitious’ in 2019 election
Bill Shorten was asked whether his “manifesto” in the 2016 and 2019 “was so ambitious, it turned people off”?
In 2019, we did have an ambitious platform. The verdict came in, I accepted that. But I am proud that we put our propositions forward.
Shorten said that Labor is “at its best when we know what we stand for and we will fight for things”. He was also asked about his legacy and said:
I’m pleased that we brought the previous government justice over robodebt and I’m pleased also to have had the opportunity to lead Labor in 2013, and some of the years after. They were tough years but the whole team pulled together. It was never just me and each of my accomplishments, it’s not just me and I’ve been fortunate to have a lucky role in it.
